From Library Journal
The entrepreneurs who need this book are already successful, experiencing spectacular growth. Of limited use to small business owners, Flamholtz's principles are more helpful for major firms trying to analyze potential or actual problems. Flamholtz's style is erudite, almost textbookish in tone, but he makes a genuine contribution to management literature. He offers a unified prescription for management, integrating ideas on topics ranging from product life cycle to leadership styles to organizational structure. He contrasts and explains entrepreneurial and professional management styles, explaining which is needed when, and why the use of the wrong style has led to the demise of some very large firms. Paul Hawken's Growing a Business (S. & S., 1987) is more popular in approach with more nitty-gritty advice for small businesses. Flamholtz is recommended for management collections.- Sue McKimm, Cuya hoga Cty. P.L., ClevelandCopyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Book News, Inc.
Advises business owners and managers how to successfully manage their companies' growth through every phase of development from start-up enterprise to mature corporation. Explores the seven predictable stages of organizational growth and identifies what must be accomplished in each stage to lay a foundation for continued successful development. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.
Review
"...whose clear analysis, audit tools and real life case studies make it an invaluable complement [to The Essential Guide to Managing a Small Business]..." (Financial Times, 18 September 2003)
Review
"...whose clear analysis, audit tools and real life case studies make it an invaluable complement [to The Essential Guide to Managing a Small Business]..." (Financial Times, 18 September 2003)
Brian Maxwell, Founder & CEO PowerBar Inc., November 29, 1999
"Most entrepreneurs have initial success by breaking the rules and ignoring the experts, but sooner or later we all run into the kinds of issues and challenges that Eric Flamholtz and Yvonne Randle have studied and assisted organizations with over the last thirty-five years. This comprehensive guide to business growth shares valuable perspective and lessons on complex business issues. My review copy is already dogeared!"
Review
"Flamholtz and Randle have done an excellent job of updating their classic roadmap. It is the best approach I have seen to overcoming the hurdles we all face in creating and improving world-class companies. I have used it and it works." —Jeffrey M. Nugent, worldwide president, Neutrogena
"A must-read for any entrepreneur, board member, or manager of a company that's evolving from an entrepreneurial to a professionally managed organization. Flamholtz and Randle have created an invaluable framework for guiding all stages of a company's evolution that will help to minimize the many obstacles that all growth companies experience." —Kirk J. Perron, founder, chairman, and CEO, Jamba Juice Company
"Most entrepreneurs experience initial success by breaking the rules and ignoring the experts. But sooner or later we all run into the kinds of issues and challenges that Flamholtz and Randle have studied and assisted organizations with over the last twenty-five years. This comprehensive guide to business growth shares valuable perspectives on complex business issues. My review copy is already dog-eared!" —Brian Maxwell, founder and CEO, PowerBar Inc.
Book Description
From start-up enterprise to mature corporation, this latest edition of the best-selling original explores the seven predictable stages of organizational growth. It also identifies what must be accomplished in each stage to ensure continued development and provides practical guidance for implementing management systems. Thoroughly updated to reflect recent business developments, it contains all-new chapters on strategic planning and structure, along with many new company success stories including those of Starbucks, Jamba Juice, PacifiCare, and American Century Investors.
Click hereM to read the introduction to this important book.
Book Info
Explores the seven predictable stages of organizational growth. Also identifies what must be accomplished during each stage to ensure continued development and provides practical guidance for implementing management systems. DLC: New business enterprises-Management.
From the Inside Flap
Why, after brilliant beginnings, do many leading entrepreneurial firms lose their way and eventually fail? What secrets have other start-up companies discovered to help them weather the storms of rapid growth and emerge successful?In this new and revised edition of Growing Pains, authors Eric G. Flamholtz and Yvonne Randle observe that many entrepreneurs are unprepared for the rigorous organizational demands of rapid growth. As firms mature, the loose, informal management styles that drove them to success become inadequate. Original systems are strained, profits decline, and founders are ousted to make room for more experienced managers.Drawing on the experiences of Starbucks, Jamba Juice, and PacifiCare, among other recent success stories, Flamholtz and Randle show entrepreneurs how to make the successful transition from humble start-up to professionally managed firm without sacrificing the unique spirit that inspired the company in the first place.The authors provide readers with a framework they can use to evaluate their firm's growth objectively, anticipate problems, pinpoint solutions, and plan strategies that will move their company toward desired goals. They outline the seven predictable stages of organizational growth and identify what must be accomplished in each stage to ensure the company's continued healthy development.Growing Pains provides the entrepreneur with many proven principles of professional management, offering guidance in such key areas as strategic planning, organizational structure, management development, organizational control, leadership, and corporate culture management. Thoroughly updated to address the realities of today's business environment, Growing Pains will help company founders deal with the personal and professional challenges they must confront as they transform their companies into professionally managed firms.
From the Back Cover
Why, after brilliant beginnings, do many leading entrepreneurial firms lose their way and eventually fail? What secrets have other start-up companies discovered to help them weather the storms of rapid growth and emerge successful?
In this new and revised edition of Growing Pains, authors Eric G. Flamholtz and Yvonne Randle observe that many entrepreneurs are unprepared for the rigorous organizational demands of rapid growth. As firms mature, the loose, informal management styles that drove them to success become inadequate. Original systems are strained, profits decline, and founders are ousted to make room for more experienced managers.
Drawing on the experiences of Starbucks, Jamba Juice, and PacifiCare, among other recent success stories, Flamholtz and Randle show entrepreneurs how to make the successful transition from humble start-up to professionally managed firm without sacrificing the unique spirit that inspired the company in the first place.
The authors provide readers with a framework they can use to evaluate their firm's growth objectively, anticipate problems, pinpoint solutions, and plan strategies that will move their company toward desired goals. They outline the seven predictable stages of organizational growth and identify what must be accomplished in each stage to ensure the company's continued healthy development.
Growing Pains provides the entrepreneur with many proven principles of professional management, offering guidance in such key areas as strategic planning, organizational structure, management development, organizational control, leadership, and corporate culture management. Thoroughly updated to address the realities of today's business environment, Growing Pains will help company founders deal with the personal and professional challenges they must confront as they transform their companies into professionally managed firms.
About the Author
ERIC G. FLAMHOLTZ is professor of management at UCLA's Anderson Graduate School of management and president of Management Systems Consulting Corporation. He lives in Los Angeles, California. YVONNE RANDLE is vice president at Management Systems Consulting Corporation. She lives in Los Angeles, California.
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